Hmm. Well, for a guy stripping down and heading into a bathroom where a beautiful girl is waiting for smexytimes, Piro sure doesn't seem all that happy about it. <yodaVoice>Conflicted, he is</yodaVoice>

That last line says a lot too, I think. His love for Miho in Endgames and over IRC wasn't any less real to him.

At the same time, there he is stripping down and heading in to be with Kimiko. I dunno.

Hmm. Well, for a guy stripping down and heading into a bathroom where a beautiful girl is waiting for smexytimes, Piro sure doesn't seem all that happy about it. <yodaVoice>Conflicted, he is</yodaVoice>

That last line says a lot too, I think. His love for Miho in Endgames and over IRC wasn't any less real to him.

At the same time, there he is stripping down and heading in to be with Kimiko. I dunno.

For the last line, remember that the comic has been exploring whether characters can be "real" (through Ping, his pregnant Endgames character, the magical girls, etc,)

Not entirely sure of the mood in that final panel. There is a hint of 'I don't care what you think I'm an adult now', but there is also something of 'please don't spoil it for me before I have a chance to find it out for myself'.

I agree with Paarfi though, it definitely has the feeling of a 'hey fsck you, just because we met and conversed online, doesn't make our feelings worth any less'.

Nice work again Fred

--------------------'The secret of lesbian porn is the self-insertion fantasy, the feeling of "You know, the right dick could turn those clam-licking hotties into hot wet sex fiends... and I am that brave dick." Keep that in mind' - Dom

I don't know... He doesn't sound like he's in the mood for anything right now... Maybe he's doing this for her (and to get clean, he really does need a shower)? It's hard to tell where his mind is at.
When did his front hair get so shaggy, but the back rather trim (in comparison)? Usually guys trim the front okay but leave the back (where they can't see it) all scraggly.

I don't know... He doesn't sound like he's in the mood for anything right now... Maybe he's doing this for her (and to get clean, he really does need a shower)? It's hard to tell where his mind is at.

I'm 99.999999999999% certain he'd wait until she was finished rather than entering with her. He's not someone who could casually take a shower with a girl, especially one that had just made it abundantly clear what she wants.

I really don't think there's any way to read this but as he's decided he wants smexytimes.

But, look at his back, yo. That must be sore ... Wonder why there's no blood stains drawn on his t-shirt (unless it was not a white one). Showering that will require some gentle assistance... Just what the very girl wants.

Heck of a time for her to show back up. Although she was properly dressed for the occasion the last time she showed up when he was going to shower with one of the two directions reverse or forward, and it doesn't seem this time she'll find out later she wasn't needed then leave in disgust over his otaku logic powers.

Dressed for the moods of potential later, telling him things he already knows, accidentally belittling his emotions while trying to justify something? Well at the least this gives a lot of credence to the idea he's still somewhat or more attached to the toxic past but doesn't think of it like that. Fantasy versus reality. He could still just go in and make excuses or try to simply take a shower, regardless of how unlikely that might seem. Yet it might just be less about anyone or anything in his past but more like his conscience still somewhat rebels at a choice to finally grow up.

He doesn't answer the question of who was the snogtarget, but again the entire rescue he seems aware of and is behaving like it's Kimiko he's carrying and in the car with. That whatever trepidation he may seem to be exhibiting isn't about that question, but some annoyance or even anger at how his conscience is phrasing things to him. As if he disagrees with it and doesn't need the advice any longer. Snapping at her that his prior emotions were just as real as any emotions are, before moving on. That the demeanor in the last panel isn't about reservations on his choice or a lack of interest.

I believe, so far, the only thing he has committed to is getting cleaned up. So he is going to be in the bath naked with Kimiko. Remember that he was also naked in the bath(house) with Miho.

I think it is going to play out like Miho described in the last panel of [1359]:

Miho wrote:He didn't make any of the right choices and didn't get very far with me. They never do.

Bing! I don't think Piro's actually made his choice yet. He's responding to the questions on script instead of stepping outside it. He's not being proactive - yet. I await a comic in which he does so, and actually smiles as he does. Somewhere around #3000.

Next Comic Prediction: Kimiko starts getting Piro lathered up, a 'Zilla steps on the love hotel, and Megumi gets so annoyed she discovers her own MG powers and punches the 'Zilla into Tokyo Bay. (Okay, maybe two comics.)

Hmm. Well, for a guy stripping down and heading into a bathroom where a beautiful girl is waiting for smexytimes, Piro sure doesn't seem all that happy about it. <yodaVoice>Conflicted, he is</yodaVoice>

If Kimiko is following advice on the toner thing he is heading into a cold shower, so a certain grimness of expression may be excusable.

Wow, haven't seen Seraphim in a hella long time, nice to see she is back on the job. Surprised Piro grew a spine and make a decision, good for him. I get the feeling this page might bring a lot of people back to the forum.

Either Seraphim is being singularly (deliberately?) unhelpful here or I am really missing something. "Which one were you snogging?" Piro already answered that with his "Who?" in panel 1 of 1511. ("Miho? Uh, sorry, doesn't ring a bell...")

Hmm... to the extent Seraphim is "just" a representation of his conscience, the implication would be that he hadn't been giving Miho a second thought until Kimiko obliquely mentioned her, bringing her back up into his conscious mind (and thus conscience). Probably more to it than that but I have never been too clear what the deal is with Seraphim so I'll just have to wait and see where Fred goes with that.

My impression is that he's not too pleased with his conscience doing little more here than restating the bleeding obvious. "Gee, thanks, is 1+1 still 2, or do we need to go through 500 pages of Whitehead and Russell to hash that one out, too? "

Seraphim just expands on what the choices really are, till it is obvious what the choice is supposed to be. She wants him to get more autonomous on this too. He just is the kind of guy who ... Errrrr...

If Kimiko was actually giving Piro an out, that's not so sure, maybe it's only what he appears to think. She seems pretty sure he's going to do what he already seems he's going to, that started in the car, just as soon as he finally makes a determination to stop waiting for other things to happen to him and to take action instead. We know he can do such things, we've seen it a few times.

Dom suggests Piro wouldn't even make moves on a body pillow, Megumi suggests they're just here to hide Kimiko from the fan boys. Many others see the lack of decision and initiative. Piro here appears to be saying to himself he doesn't need to justify the imaginary past in favor of the actual present. It's not necessarily him saying that anything else about the past except the feelings was real, but that he doesn't need permission, justification, or a reason to make a choice. And that the choice being made now isn't any different than the choice made before, with the underlying reality being essentially unimportant.

He seems to rebuke the idea this decision is any less real than any of the other ones he's ever made.

I believe, so far, the only thing he has committed to is getting cleaned up. So he is going to be in the bath naked with Kimiko. Remember that he was also naked in the bath(house) with Miho.

There appear a few differences though, besides that last one being history and this one still in progress.

Last time, the two were still on the run, acting serious and detached, having a decidedly unromantic conversation mostly about 'her story,' while being spied on by Yuki, and there was so little physical attraction or content his conscience fairly soon decides there wasn't much of a reason to show up. It wasn't going that direction. By the end of that bathhouse scene, nothing seems to have been actually resolved, unless you count not determining much. The questions that he was interested in figuring out, was trying to guess at, and that she didn't really answer. What is she, what is her status, why does she have to die, why does she dislike it if it's not permanent, what can she do about it if anything. This lack of info or his inability to parse it, eventually turns into otaku logic that makes his conscience give up and leave in 1330. Apparently. Then Miho moves them into the next phase of the bathhouse arc with her finding Yutaka and Yuki. Yet there are probably some fairly clear things. The two paid very little attention to the fact they had nothing on, didn't do anything particularly moralistically problematic, didn't talk about their past 'relationship' and didn't express any interest in each other. We might say, that big difference before is that apparently Miho and Piro don't like each other all that much.

This time, the rescue is over, they've been joking (well okay she has), and she's directly invited him into the shower with her. There's no demonstration of what is up with her and moving through gaps and nothingness, while MG follow and while on a story arc made up as they go along, all to keep the mystical horde away or some such. Instead Kimiko is actually real, and to the same extent Piro is real. So finally allowing oneself to accept the choice they seemed to have made quite a while ago, then mostly stuck with. Here the conscience isn't here to be referee or guide , but seemingly only to explain out loud what he's already been doing. But he isn't having any of it. So this doesn't even start with a question if she's needed, she's not, there's been a choice made that's finally revealed. Even though the past thoughts were just as real and essentially the same thing, that's not an excuse to say oh now this one is better because she's real. He's thinking like Kimiko now apparently. For the last long while this has been building, almost since she first hits him in the head with a pot of coffee. We might even say the difference now is that Piro and Kimiko like each other.

Although not being over yet, we don't know if aside from the cold water hair wash this like the last one turns from a cold exchange into a sort of plot change. But if this is internal MT Piro thoughts, the last time there was a question of sticking with the past and illusion and the safety of clear plot lines at times, this time he rejects the notion this is any more or less than they last time but is a choice he makes regardless of the unknown. We assume going into the shower area finalizes the choice, not is the continuation of more avoiding making decisions in the hopes of hanging onto what even he said (and seemed to believe) never actually was.

Feelings are hard to get rid of even when there's no moral dilemma involved.

So, I dunno if Seraphim assumed something that wasn't true, but I think Piro made that very clear. How many of you guys end up feeling something emotional about a fictional character, be it by book, video game, television or whatever? Fictional characters may be fictional characters, but the emotions are nonetheless real. I suspect that is the danger of good fiction: Hard to discern fake from reality when emotions get involved. That's definitely the mark of a true creative genius.

I don't think we'll know Piro's true feelings just yet. I don't think even he knows.

Piro here appears to be saying to himself he doesn't need to justify the imaginary past in favor of the actual present.

Nicely put.

This time, the rescue is over, they've been joking (well okay she has) [...]

1511, panel 4, he is playing the Straight Man here, the tsukkomi to her boke. He's not flinching away from her giggly embrace, but leaning into it; don't let the deadpan expression fool you, that's part of the routine. Externally, "Yes, yes, I'm a nerd, go ahead and mock me. " Internally, "Must not express delight that her boob is touching my cheek... "

How many of you guys end up feeling something emotional about a fictional character, be it by book, video game, television or whatever? Fictional characters may be fictional characters, but the emotions are nonetheless real.

Douglas Adams (well, paraphrased) wrote:
“This Piro," comes the cry from the furthest reaches of the Interwebs, and has even now been found inscribed on a mysterious "cool thing" thought to originate from a faraway island nation across a cultural abyss too hideous to contemplate, "what is he, man or mouse? Is he interested in nothing more than galge and the obscurer issues of otaku life? Has he no spirit? Has he no passion? Does he not, to put it in a nutshell, fuck?”

Had that bouncing around in my head for like three strips now, couldn't keep it in any longer, sorry. I feel bad admitting that Kimiko is not quite as awesome as Fenchurch all things considered, but dang, she is pretty fine in her own way.

My apologies for the f-bomb but c'mon, it's Douglas Freakin' Adams.

Last edited by darrin on Mon Mar 26, 2018 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.